International Cricket : New Zealand vs Australia 3/03/2021 Cricket Prediction

Australia faces New Zealand in a must win clash as the hosts hold a 2-0 lead in the five match T20 series. The Third T20 will be held on Wednesday 3rd March,2021 at 2:00am EST. Can Australia win and extend the series? Or will New Zealand win their third consecutive match and wrap the series up. 

Australia is up against it here, needing a victory to stay alive in this series. They narrowly lost the second match after being comprehensively outplayed in the first. They are almost certain to ring the changes here, as their current line-ups are clearly not working. One name that comes to mind is D’Arcy Short, the talented all-rounder who has a phenomenal Big Bash season. He may be just the spark that Australia need to keep the series going. For the most part, their players have been performing well, with their middle-order batsmen and bowlers being in good form. One area of concern is their top order, with captain Aaron Finch struggling. They will be relied on here to perform and help keep the series alive. 

New Zealand is in phenomenal form at home thus far and are looking unbeatable. Their bowling unit is always extremely strong, but it has been the batting that has impressed so  far this series. Kane Williamson, Martin Guptil and Devon Conway have been outstanding and have set them up for victory in both matches so far. The scary part for Australia is that New Zealand has key players such as Kyle Jamieson who are yet to hit their stride so far, and can only improve. They are unlikely to make any changes to a winning side and enter this match as favorites to wrap this series up early. 

While New Zealand has won both matches, the second one really could have gone either way and Australia will feel confident that they are good enough to get the win here. They will have to make changes and one that I am looking to see is to replace Ashton Agar with Short and that could potentially be a game changer.  I expect another very close match with some exciting cricket from both teams but New Zealand is looking unstoppable at this point and I see them wrapping the series up 3-0.